The Daily Reid: Our Little Kakistocracy

We are being run by idiots, mediocrities, and bad-minded fools with group chats

Mar 25, 2025

The word “Kakistocracy” literally means “a government by the worst or most venal people.” Basically, government by idiots, or “Idiocracy.” I also like the term “Mediocracy,” to describe a government in which mediocre people are deliberately elevated to positions of power, both because they won’t be smart enough to rebel and will go along with whatever the autocrat or oligarchs in charge say, and because their very mediocrity actually sends a message to the out-groups, that no matter how hard they strive, how diligently they work, or how smart or even brilliant they are, the mediocrities in the in-group will always be in charge, and get all of the best jobs, positions, land, housing, and benefits. You literally cannot elevate your status through excellence in a mediocrity. Your only hope is to be born a member of the preferred and protected caste.

Hogan's Heroes, the 1960s CBS sit-com starring Bob Crane as Col. Robert Hogan and Werner Klemperer as Col. Klink.

A Mediocracy is the kind of world portrayed in Hogan’s Heroes, the really fun sitcom that ran for six seasons on CBS from 1965 to 1971, in which the members of a World War II POW camp in Germany, reserved for American resistance fighters — Stalag 13 — constantly outwit their hapless, Nazi captors, particularly the stern but bumbling Colonel Klink. The Nazis in the show represent to polar opposite of the claims of the real life German furher about Aryan superiority, in that they are, to put it kindly, idiots, while the Americans, portrayed by a multicultural (for the 1960s) cast that included actors who were “refugees from the racial politics of Nazi Germany.”

In the end, whichever word you use: Idiocracy, Mediocracy or Kakistocracy … it doesn’t really matter. Either way, one or all of those are what we’re living in, in Trump and Elon’s America.

Item:

The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg dropped a bomb of a story today. It turns out, he was accidentally invited to a Signal group in which our idiot of a Defense Secretary, the guy from Fox Weekends, shared the regime’s apparent war plan against the Houthi rebels of Yemen. Let me reiterate … our very own Colonel Klink is sharing U.S. war plans on a bro groupchat.

The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.
I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.
…The story technically begins shortly after the Hamas invasion of southern Israel, in October 2023. The Houthis—an Iran-backed terrorist organization whose motto is “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory to Islam”—soon launched attacks on Israel and on international shipping, creating havoc for global trade. Throughout 2024, the Biden administration was ineffective in countering these Houthi attacks; the incoming Trump administration promised a tougher response.
This is where Pete Hegseth and I come in.
On Tuesday, March 11, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz. Signal is an open-source encrypted messaging service popular with journalists and others who seek more privacy than other text-messaging services are capable of delivering. I assumed that the Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz. I have met him in the past, and though I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists—and Trump’s periodic fixation on me specifically. It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me. It is not at all uncommon these days for nefarious actors to try to induce journalists to share information that could be used against them.
I accepted the connection request, hoping that this was the actual national security adviser, and that he wanted to chat about Ukraine, or Iran, or some other important matter.
Two days later—Thursday—at 4:28 p.m., I received a notice that I was to be included in a Signal chat group. It was called the “Houthi PC small group.”
A message to the group, from “Michael Waltz,” read as follows: “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.”
The message continued, “Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.”
The term principals committee generally refers to a group of the senior-most national-security officials, including the secretaries of defense, state, and the treasury, as well as the director of the CIA. It should go without saying—but I’ll say it anyway—that I have never been invited to a White House principals-committee meeting, and that, in my many years of reporting on national-security matters, I had never heard of one being convened over a commercial messaging app.
One minute later, a person identified only as “MAR”—the secretary of state is Marco Antonio Rubio—wrote, “Mike Needham for State,” apparently designating the current counselor of the State Department as his representative. At that same moment, a Signal user identified as “JD Vance” wrote, “Andy baker for VP.” One minute after that, “TG” (presumably Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, or someone masquerading as her) wrote, “Joe Kent for DNI.” Nine minutes later, “Scott B”—apparently Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, or someone spoofing his identity, wrote, “Dan Katz for Treasury.” At 4:53 p.m., a user called “Pete Hegseth” wrote, “Dan Caldwell for DoD.” And at 6:34 p.m., “Brian” wrote “Brian McCormack for NSC.” One more person responded: “John Ratcliffe” wrote at 5:24 p.m. with the name of a CIA official to be included in the group. I am not publishing that name, because that person is an active intelligence officer.
The principals had apparently assembled. In all, 18 individuals were listed as members of this group, including various National Security Council officials; Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East and Ukraine negotiator; Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff; and someone identified only as “S M,” which I took to stand for Stephen Miller. I appeared on my own screen only as “JG.”
That was the end of the Thursday text chain.
After receiving the Waltz text related to the “Houthi PC small group,” I consulted a number of colleagues. We discussed the possibility that these texts were part of a disinformation campaign, initiated by either a foreign intelligence service or, more likely, a media-gadfly organization, the sort of group that attempts to place journalists in embarrassing positions, and sometimes succeeds. I had very strong doubts that this text group was real, because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans. I also could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor in chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior U.S. officials, up to and including the vice president.

It got weirder from there… These might be the stupidest people ever to run a government. I mean … how are we losing our democracy to these fools??? Let me add just one more bit from the Atlantic story, which is beyond alarming:

It was the next morning, Saturday, March 15, when this story became truly bizarre.
At 11:44 a.m., the account labeled “Pete Hegseth” posted in Signal a “TEAM UPDATE.” I will not quote from this update, or from certain other subsequent texts. The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility. What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.
The only person to reply to the update from Hegseth was the person identified as the vice president. “I will say a prayer for victory,” Vance wrote. (Two other users subsequently added prayer emoji.)
According to the lengthy Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hours hence, at 1:45 p.m. eastern time. So I waited in my car in a supermarket parking lot. If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Houthi targets would soon be bombed. At about 1:55, I checked X and searched Yemen. Explosions were then being heard across Sanaa, the capital city.
I went back to the Signal channel. At 1:48, “Michael Waltz” had provided the group an update. Again, I won’t quote from this text, except to note that he described the operation as an “amazing job.” A few minutes later, “John Ratcliffe” wrote, “A good start.” Not long after, Waltz responded with three emoji: a fist, an American flag, and fire. Others soon joined in, including “MAR,” who wrote, “Good Job Pete and your team!!,” and “Susie Wiles,” who texted, “Kudos to all – most particularly those in theater and CENTCOM! Really great. God bless.” “Steve Witkoff” responded with five emoji: two hands-praying, a flexed bicep, and two American flags. “TG” responded, “Great work and effects!” The after-action discussion included assessments of damage done, including the likely death of a specific individual. The Houthi-run Yemeni health ministry reported that at least 53 people were killed in the strikes, a number that has not been independently verified.

Imagine what the right would say if the defense secretary who did this was Lloyd Austin… you can just fill in the “DEI” barbs and epithets yourself. It’s even better with the actual emoji thread (from the article)

Jesus, take the wheel… and shoot it into the sun…

They will make it illegal to oppose the oligarchs

The Trump Elon regime, meanwhile, has zeroed in on who they will designate as enemies of the kakistocratic state. These include:

Any media who refuse to kneel to Trump (and to the idiotic idea of a “Gulf of America…”

Environmental protection organizations who stand against unlimited oil and gas drilling and who dared to receive grant money from the Biden administration:

The FBI is moving to criminalize groups like Habitat for Humanity for receiving grants from the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration.
Citibank revealed in a court filing Wednesday that it was told to freeze the groups’ bank accounts at the FBI’s request. The reason? The FBI alleges that the groups are involved in “possible criminal violations,” including “conspiracy to defraud the United States.”
“The FBI has told Citibank that recipients of EPA climate grants are being considered as potentially liable for fraud. That is, the Trump administration wants to criminalize work on climate science and impacts,” the @capitolhunters account wrote Wednesday on X. “An incoming administration not only cancels federal grants but declares recipients as criminals. All these grantees applied under government calls FOR ENVIRONMENTAL WORK, were reviewed and accepted. Trump wants to jail them.“
The Appalachian Community Capital Corporation, the Coalition for Green Capital, and the DC Green Bank are just some of the nonprofits being targeted.
“This is not fraud. This is targeted harassment,” @capitolhunters continued. “The idea of criminalizing community climate work wouldn’t have originated at the FBI—it likely comes from EPA director Lee Zeldin, who today cut all EPA’s environmental justice offices, which try to reduce pollution in poor and minority communities.”
Zeldin’s order eliminates 10 EPA regional offices as well as the one in Washington, D.C.

And environmental groups are properly afraid.

Pro Palestinian protesters, particularly on college campuses (it seems inevitable that the regime will soon make it a crime to oppose Israeli actions at all, or to oppose Donald Trump…)

Companies or organizations that seek diversity and inclusion in their workforces or business models…

More headlines

The NAACP and a major teachers union are preparing to sue the Trump-Elon administration for trying to nuke the Department of Education.

Call your grandparents … Social Security is cutting services, at the White House’s request.

Why it matters: These changes will strain the already struggling Social Security system and deprive some people of benefits entirely, according to current and former employees and advocates for retirees.
Some of the most vulnerable Americans — including people who are hospitalized, kids in foster homes and those living in remote areas — will be effectively blocked from applying for disability benefits, according to one advocate who spoke with Axios and was at the meeting.

And here comes the bird flu…

… and measles, which appears to have broken out of Texas and moved on to to the equally maga red state of Tennessee...

One more thing…

This is how it sounds when the doge gang rips the floor out from under a federal worker. Kudos to Rep. Ayanna Pressley for hearing this man and giving him space.

Stay safe and sane out there!

(This post has been updated.)

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The Daily Reid: Our Little Kakistocracy

We are being run by idiots, mediocrities, and bad-minded fools with group chats

They will make it illegal to oppose the oligarchs

More headlines

One more thing…

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